All the World's a Stage

Comic actor Joseph Jefferson, one of the best-known American stage personalities of the nineteenth century, died in Palm Beach in 1905. Born into a family of actors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 20, 1829, Jefferson achieved one of his first major successes in 1858 in Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle in an Americanized version of a German folk tale popularized by Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819-20). Jefferson took this play on the road for years after he originated the role, and became known throughout the United States for his portrayal.

The first American theaters were built in the eighteenth century--in Williamsburg, Virginia, (1716) and in Charleston, South Carolina (1730). Many theater groups of that period were itinerant. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, there were many theaters throughout the country and American actors were making a name for themselves on both sides of the Atlantic. Three of the most famous of Jefferson’s contemporaries were Edwin Booth, son of native Englishman Junius Brutus Booth and brother of the infamous John Wilkes Booth—himself an actor of some note, Charlotte Cushman, and Edwin Forrest, who was known for his vocal power and athleticism on stage.

The collection The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals contains many articles on the theater and the actors of that era. Search the collection on names such as Joseph, Jefferson; Washington Irving; Edwin Booth; Charlotte Cushman; Rip Van Winkle, and Edwin Forrest, to find related articles.

Search the Prints and Photographs Online Catalogon the same names (above) as well as on phrases such as actors, actresses, theaters, and theatrical productions, to find images of these figures and of various aspects of the theater profession.

Click on Performing Arts, Music to access a list of American Memory collections with music, dance, and theater materials. Search across this list of collections, or any subset of this group, on terms such as theater, actress, and actor. For more related information, search the Today in History Archive on these same terms.